[1] After World War II her grandparents returned from London, where her grandfather had worked with Edvard Beneš, president of the exiled Czechoslovak government.

While there, she had first-hand experience of the tramping movement and began to sing folk songs with guitar accompaniment.

She began a collaboration with the Traditional Jazz Studio, worked occasionally with other music ensembles and was also allowed to perform regularly in the Theatre on the Balustrade, where she met and formed a friendship with Václav Havel, the later Czechoslovak and Czech president.

It gained wide critical acclaim and Olmerová was invited to perform in Western Europe but the Czechoslovak music agency Pragokoncert, closely tied with the communist authorities, refused her the necessary travel permit due to her "unreliability".

This marriage also quickly ended in divorce and in the same year she drunkenly crashed a Wartburg car borrowed from jazz bassist Luděk Hulan.

She recorded her next album, Zahraj i pro mne ("Play Also for Me") with the Jazz Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio at the age of 48.

In the 1980s Olmerová performed with the Metropolitan Jazz Band, the Steamboat Stompers and with the Senior Dixieland, and occasionally sang with folk and country musicians (Wabi Ryvola among others).

She lived in poor domestic conditions on a low rate of invalidity pension, but continued singing.

Eva Olmerová welcomed the fall of the communist régime in 1989 and visited Václav Havel at Prague Castle, but her health was ruined.

Drahomíra Vihanová made a short documentary film about her in 1991 – Proměny přítelkyně Evy ("Changes of Friend Eva").

[21] She claimed to be free of the influences of other singers but admitted to an admiration for Mahalia Jackson and the styles of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby.

[21] On the Czech jazz scene she was often compared to Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, both for her voice and her turbulent lifestyle.

The somewhat sentimental mood of most contemporary folk and country songs were revitalised under her lively swing and blues singing style.